Hermann Gmeiner Award 2009

Kersti Kukk (21 years), Estonia

She was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1987 and moved in SOS Children’s Village Keila in 1994.

She is doing her bachelor’s degree in the oldest University of Estonia, Tartu University. It is her third year of political studies with a specialisation to international relations, which she is actually doing as an exchange student in Voronezh, Russia. Her last university year Kersti did in Bordeaux, France as an Erasmus exchange student.

She is very interested in languages, she speaks good English, French, Russian and Norwegian and she is planning to learn German and Spanish. Kersti also loves singing, she has studied it in a studio in Estonia and even recorded two songs, one together with her older brother, Meelis, with a dedication to their extended family and friends. She also plays some guitar.

As she got the chance to grow up in an SOS Children’s Village, she now has a strong wish to make a contribution to the amelioration of the conditions of children in out-of-home care.

She took part in the elaboration of the Q4C Standards and since the beginning of this year she frequents a local after-care institution (in Voronezh) during week-ends.